Rose colored rain
by Amles80
Summary: Rewriting the end of the movie. After Andy left Miranda and threw her cellphone away... what if this had happened? *femslash, fluff* Previously posted on LJ about two years ago for a comment fic-a-thon. Oneshot. Edited version.


Later that day it started raining, but Andy didn't want to go back to where she could meet someone she knew, like at the hotel.

So she went down to the métro and jumped on a random train. It happened to take her up to somewhere around Montmartre, where people were selling cheep scarves, bags, t-shirts and tea cups that said 'I Love Paris', Eiffel tower-shaped key chains and tons of other stuff for tourists. She had some money with her and bought an umbrella. It was yellowish with a black cat print.

She was already wet and more than a little cold, but the umbrella comforted her as she walked on, uphill among those endless little tourist traps, until she could see the Sacre Coeur.

It looked so white and shiny on all the postcards, but there in the rain it was only dull and gray.

Like her life.

She could see now, when her feet were soaking wet and she wasn't quite sure about where she was because she didn't have a map, that she had made the biggest mistake of her life. She had acted on an impulse. If she only had given herself the time to think about it one more moment…

She blamed the car for stopping when it did.

Miranda had tried to explain it to her. Nigel was going to not only survive but also forgive. Miranda had only done what was necessary. Yes, Andy could see all that. Now after quite a while of walking through Paris in shoes very unfit for that activity, she could admit to herself that her anger had been a passing thing. It was the 'everyone wants to be us' comment that had been the final drop that had made Andy furiously walk away like that.

It was true that Miranda had built _Runway_ but why did that give her the right to think she could rebuild, change and control everyone around her? Andy knew that it was her job as an assistant to fulfil Miranda's wishes as if she had none of her own, but she hated to think that Miranda looked upon her as a simple accessory, a personality-less void to fill with whatever she wanted.

That was not what she was. Shouldn't Miranda know that? Didn't she know? With some perhaps foolish part of her, she had believed that Miranda did _see_ her as a person, but maybe she had been wrong?

Even so, Andy regretted that she had walked away. She would have called Miranda if she hadn't thrown the cell phone away. It had seemed like a very good decision at the time but she realized now that if she didn't have Miranda in her life anymore, she wouldn't have anymore sunshine or warmth or any shiny colors.

It was getting dark and the rain kept pouring down. Andy didn't have anything better to do so she continued walking uphill and went into the church. She didn't bother acting the good tourist and stroll up and down the big room to look at everything, she just took a seat close to the entrance. She sighed deeply and tried to relax. Her feet were aching.

It was quiet in there. Voices were murmuring softly and she heard the shuffling sound of feet. Nobody seemed to see or care that she cried.

* * *

Andy didn't know how long she stayed in there but it was dark when she came out. The magnificent view of Paris below her was filled with lights and she supposed it was beautiful. 'The city of lights'. She remembered with a shudder how she had fallen in love with Paris the night before. It wasn't just the wine; she truly found the city beautiful.

Just like she had blamed the car earlier, for making her leave, she now blamed Paris for the fact that she had kissed Christian and followed him to his hotel. The intoxicating beauty of the city had blinded her and it had seemed to tell her that the sadness she felt deep inside her heart - a sadness that had something to do with Miranda, but she had never wanted to fully examin that thought, afraid of the consequences - would go away; this sadness meant nothing, because she was young and beautiful and wanted, in Paris... Was that going to be her lasting impressions of Paris, that it was rainy and cold and beautiful, and that it had seduced her into sleeping with a man she actually didn't even like? Paris, the city she had lost Miranda in.

Wishing she had more clothes on, she began walking downhill, still with the umbrella up. Her feet ached with every step and she told herself she should stop walking around randomly and go back to the hotel, face the reprimands, take her passport and her belongings, and leave.

Few people were out; she guessed the rain made more sensible people stay inside. And it was probably around dinner time.

Andy walked down a narrow and uneven street that forced her to pay attention to every step she took. There was not even one métro sign in sight and for a moment she considered taking her shoes off.

There was someone standing at the end of the street, under a street light, looking up at her. The person was standing absolutely still under a big umbrella. For a split second Andy thought it was a beggar woman or a robber.

Then as if she was struck by lightning, so almost painful was the shock, she realized that it was Miranda who was standing there completely motionless in the rain.

Andy's legs were shaking. She didn't pay attention to the uneven ground she was walking on, and she staggered and feared that she was going to fall or break a heel, possibly both.

Miranda started walking towards her, slowly but completely steadily, as if her heels were less high. Or maybe she was just that much better at walking in high heels.

Unlike Andy, Miranda didn't look like a drenched cat gone astray; she was wearing a scarf, gloves and a coat. She had obviously given her outfit some thought. She was obviously there for a reason, but to Andy's overwhelmed and confused mind, she still looked like an unlikely and somewhat frightening apparition.

They were face to face and for a long moment neither of them spoke.

"What are you doing here?" Andy's voice was unsteady and too shrill.

The apparition didn't answer her and her insecurity grew.

"Miranda, is that really you?"

The apparition glared at her.

"Don't be ridiculous, Andrea. Is that all you have to say?"

Miranda's voice was sharp. Yet, for some reason the familiarity of it transformed itself somehow into a warm 'welcome home' greeting on its way to Andy's brain, and she grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, it's just that I'm really glad to see you. How did you find me?"

Again, Miranda's mouth was closed and silent. Her eyes spoke of… something that Andy couldn't quite decipher.

"Um, I mean… Did you come here looking for me, or…"

"Yes," Miranda said, her lips barely moving and the word barely audible, but Andy caught it. Suddenly, the extraordinary, completely unlikely and earth shattering truth dawned on her: Miranda had actually left Nigel and all her duties, obligations and responsibilities behind. Miranda had walked right out in the city looking for _Andy_.

"Miranda, please forgive me, I'm so sorry," she said and hot tears met the cold raindrops on her cheeks.

Miranda stared at her and said, slowly:

"I hope you are. If you're not, then I don't know what I'm doing here. I didn't know if I could find you. I don't even think I honestly believed that I could. You left, and you could have gone anywhere…"

"You've not been out all this time, have you?"

Miranda shook her head.

"Two hours, maybe three at most."

'Maybe'? Had Miranda lost track of time? _This is unbelievable_, Andy thought, _it can't be happening…_

"I can't believe that I found you…" Miranda hesitated for a moment. "Okay. If I've not made a complete fool of myself yet I never will, so I'm just going to say this. Andrea, I suppose I can understand it if you want to leave _Runway_. But there is one thing that I do not want you to do…"

Andy took a step forward and her umbrella with the black cat bumped into Miranda's. She threw hers away and flung her arms around Miranda's neck. Miranda staggered a bit at first, probably not used to anyone jumping at her like that.

"No, Miranda, I won't leave _you_. Please; if you just say that you want me I promise I'll never leave your side again."

Miranda wrapped her arms around Andy, dropping her own umbrella.

"Andrea," she mumbled into Andy's hair, "I can't believe this is happening, I haven't known what I've been doing since you walked away… Andrea, darling, can you forgive me…"

Andy's heart melted when she heard her name spoken like that and she hugged Miranda even tighter.

"Forgive you, I don't understand…"

"Forgive me for not realizing sooner how much I need you. I… Andrea, do you…"

"Yes!" Andy laughed out loud, feeling her hair getting soaking wet again. "Yes, Miranda, yes, I need you too, I want nothing else than to be with you."

Miranda broke free of their embrace.

"That's all I wanted to hear," she said, sounding softer and kinder than Andy had ever heard her before. "Now let's get away from here, shall we?"

Andy nodded and bent down to pick up Miranda's umbrella.

"Here, take this. You'll ruin your hair."

Miranda took it and then pulled Andy closer so they both shared the same little roof.

"If you insist," she said and then a soft, rippling laugh dropped from her lips. "But honestly, I'm beyond caring now."

Miranda's laugh was quite possibly the sweetest sound Andy had ever heard. Except from their hard and desperate embrace moments ago, Andy had never been so close to Miranda before and she felt her heart singing.

They walked like that, closely pressed together, and Andy tried to grasp the idea that Miranda cared about her, that she might actually love her a little bit.

They came to a small, empty square where a little fountain tried to compete with the rain. Andy thought there was something optimistic, almost touching, in the way its water poured and splashed, and the lights surrounding the square made everything look shiny and glittering.

"Listen," Andy said and they both stopped.

Music was coming out from the half-open window of a restaurant. The delicious scent of food was coming out of it, too, but Andy ignored her stomach.

"_Quand il me prend dans ses bras il me parle tout bas, je vois la vie en rose..._ "

Miranda's eyes were burning, glowing, sparkling.

"Yes," she said slowly, "I believe life is beginning to become rose colored…"

"May I…"

Something made Andy change halfway and instead of saying 'may I kiss you?', she asked:

"Miranda, may I have this dance?"

They were going to have time to kiss later, a lifetime as far as she was concerned, but this? No, the opportunity to dance with Miranda in the rain on an empty square in the middle of Paris was probably a once in a life time kind of thing.

Miranda smiled. She dropped her umbrella for the second time seemingly without giving her hair and makeup one single thought. She took Andy in her arms and they danced to the slow, sweet song. The rain was falling down incessantly around them but Andy didn't feel at all cold or disturbed.

She knew that she was always going to love the rain because she was always going to remember that dance. The rain was going to be a lucky sign from then on.


End file.
